There is no fate that cannot be surmounted by scorn.

Courage is being scared to death… and saddling up anyway.

Creation is a sustained period of bliss, even though the subject can still be very sad. Because there’s the triumph of coming through and understanding that you have, and that you did it the way only you could do it. You didn’t do it the way somebody told you to do it.

Never let the fear of striking out get in your way.

To endure is the first thing that a child ought to learn, and that which he will have the most need to know.

There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.

It doesn’t matter where you are coming from. All that matters is where you are going.

Mentally, the only players who survive in the pros are the ones able to manage all their responsibilities. Everybody struggles in different ways.

As a professional athlete a lot is going to be said about you – but I just try to move forward and try to achieve my goals.

I came in with Halley’s Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don’t go out with Halley’s Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: ‚Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.‘

I would storm the gates of Hell if Third Marine Air Wing was overhead.

All successful people men and women are big dreamers. They imagine what their future could be, ideal in every respect, and then they work every day toward their distant vision, that goal or purpose.

Do something everyday for no other reason than you would rather not do it, so that when the hour of dire need draws nigh, it may find you not unnerved and untrained to stand the test.

I tend not to really think about what other people say. I’d rather just try and focus on what I’m doing, try and win basically.

Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success.

We shall draw from the heart of suffering itself the means of inspiration and survival.

If you work hard and play by the rules, this country is truly open to you. You can achieve anything.

Every night on the court I give my all, and if I’m not giving 100 percent, I criticize myself.

I probably wouldn’t have made it this far if I were a refugee.

I’ll never, ever be full. I’ll always be hungry. Obviously, I’m not talking about food. Growing up, I had nothing for such a long time. Someone told me a long time ago, and I’ve never forgotten it, ‚Once you’ve ever been hungry, really, really hungry, then you’ll never, ever be full.‘

I can hear you, the rest of the world can hear you and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon.

If my world were to cave in tomorrow, I would look back on all the pleasures, excitements and worthwhilenesses I have been lucky enough to have had. Not the sadness, not my miscarriages or my father leaving home, but the joy of everything else. It will have been enough.

If you care enough for a result, you will most certainly attain it.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

I’ve had two cancer bouts in my years on the Court, and the first one, Justice O’Connor told me, ‚Now, you do the chemotherapy on Friday because you’ll get over it during the weekend and you can be back in court on Monday.‘

There is no substitute for victory.

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

That’s when you know you’re the greatest: when you’re the greatest, and people still put odds against you.

We are not retreating – we are advancing in another direction.

Even though you are on the right track – you will get run over if you just sit there.

I don’t think I will ever be content. I am somebody who is always hungry.

Let every nation know, whether it wishes us well or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty.

You’ve got to learn to survive a defeat. That’s when you develop character.

Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.

The will is a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills; Nor can it choose its rider… the riders contend for its possession.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

Talent without working hard is nothing.

What I want for my fans and for the world, for anyone who feels pain, is to lean into that pain and embrace it as much as they can and begin the healing process.

There are those who believe Black people possess the secret of joy and that it is this that will sustain them through any spiritual or moral or physical devastation.

When you are fitted in a racing car and you race to win, second or third place is not enough.

Even when we have physical hardships, we can be very happy.

It doesn’t matter if the water is cold or warm if you’re going to have to wade through it anyway.

With audacity one can undertake anything, but not do everything.

What by a straight path cannot be reached by crooked ways is never won.

I remember the last three days that I was president, I never went to bed at all. I never went to bed until we had negotiated the final release of the hostages.

I like criticism. It makes you strong.

I wonder how many times people give up just before a breakthrough – when they are on the very brink of success.

When it all got taken away, I was becoming a young man. So I had to sacrifice to leave my family… Sleeping in my car, getting an apartment for a month and getting evicted the next month. Staying in the $25, $50 hotels.

What keeps me going is goals.

I never thought about what people would say about me. I was just a young guy who was excited to become a comedian and an actor, and I just wanted to get to do what I got to do.

I grew up in the east side of Detroit in an area where there was very little, except for a lot of scarcity, poverty and hunger. I never woke up saying, ‚I’m an orphan again today, isn’t this terrible? Poor me.‘

I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.

People say ‚I want to be rich‘. The question is, ‚Are you willing to do what it takes?‘

When my ancestors came from Africa, they were shackled by our neck, our wrists, and our ankles in steel chains. I’ve turned those steel chains into gold to symbolize the fact that I’m still a slave, only my price tag is higher.

They died hard, those savage men – like wounded wolves at bay. They were filthy, and they were lousy, and they stunk. And I loved them.

I’m always asked, ‚What’s the secret to success?‘ But there are no secrets. Be humble. Be hungry. And always be the hardest worker in the room.

A small body of determined spirits fired by an unquenchable faith in their mission can alter the course of history.

The final proof of greatness lies in being able to endure criticism without resentment.

Dealing with backstabbers, there was one thing I learned. They’re only powerful when you got your back turned.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.

If you choose to do something, attack it. You can hate me, but there’s one thing you can’t say about me – that I didn’t attack it.